BBC's Unlikely Story

Did the TV coverage of the Mumbai attacks enable the LET's controlling officers in Pakistan to give precise instructions to the terrorists? Or was there a Mumbai-based sleeper cell of the LET that was communicating details of the police deployments a

Under its Newsnight programme, British Broadcasting Corporation 2 is reportedly planning to show at 10-30 PM on June 29, 2009, an investigative story on the Mumbai terrorist attack of November
26, 2008, by Richard Watson, its correspondent. An advance version of the programme disseminated to the media in the UK and India shows that as a result of his investigation, Watson came to the conclusion that spotters belonging to a Mumbai-based sleeper cell of the Lashkar-e-Toiba ( LET) must have been communicating to the LET's controlling officers in
Pakistan details of the police deployments and movements in and around the targeted areas on the basis of which they were able to give precise instructions to the terrorists participating in the multiple attacks. He questions the Mumbai police version that the controllers were able to give such instructions purely on the basis of their visual observations from the TV coverage of the attacks as they were taking place.

As reported by TheTelegraph of the UK, Watson says as follows:

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"How did the leaders know the police positions in such detail? Mumbai police say they were watching live TV in Pakistan. But these instructions seem remarkably precise for that. I know the kind of live-shots used in these situations and they would be unlikely to yield that kind of detail. It is far more likely that they had spotters on the ground who were feeding back information to their leaders about the police movements. If this is true then it means a Lashkar e-Taiba cell in Mumbai
which played a crucial role in the attacks which is still undiscovered."

His conclusion is based on his assessment of the communications intelligence collected by the police and not on the basis of any independent evidence collected by him in addition to what the Mumbai Police had collected.

The fact that the LET has been having sleeper cells in Mumbai is well known since the twin explosions of
August, 2003. It is also a reasonable possibility that the Mumbai Police has not been able to identify and neutralise all the sleeper cells of the LET in Mumbai. That is why acts of terrorism keep taking place from time to time despite the neutralisation of many cells in Mumbai and other cities. Recently, a sleeper cell headed by a Nepal-based LET operative was neutralised by the Delhi Police.

To say that the LET must still be having unearthed sleeper cells in Mumbai is one thing and to assert that the spotters of an LET sleeper cell in Mumbai must have been passing on details of police deployments around the targeted areas to the controllers in Pakistan during the attack in
Novembere, 2008, is something totally different.

The Mumbai terrorist attack lasted nearly over 60 hours. Nationals of many Western countries and Israel were among those taken hostage by the terrorists. The intelligence agencies of at least India, the US and Israel were electronically monitoring the telephone calls from and to the attacked areas on a minute-to-minute basis. Of all the intelligence agencies of the world, the National Security Agency (NSA). the electronic intelligence agency of the US, has deployed the maximum technical assets in the Af-Pak region since 9/11 to monitor the communications of Al Qaeda, the LET and other associates. Once the terrorist attacks started, the NSA must have turned all its assets in the region towards Mumbai to monitor all in-coming and out-going communications. So too the Indian intelligence.

The Indian and the US intelligence agencies were able to intercept all communications passing between the terrorists who had occupied the two hotels and the
Nariman House and their controlling officers in Pakistan. In addition to contemporaneously monitoring telephone conversations, intelligence agencies have also arrangements for automatic recording of all conversations in a terrorism situation so that if they contemporaneously miss any conversation, they can refer to the recordings.

Had there been LET spotters around the areas targeted, who were in independent communication with the controllers in Pakistan their
conversations--whether through the Internet or otherwise--must have also been intercepted contemporaneously or recorded and noticed subsequently. No intelligence
agency--neither Indian nor the US nor of any other country--has spoken of any such conversation with Pakistan by elements not participating in the attacks. This would show that apart from the 10 terrorists of the LET, who participated in the attacks, nobody else was in independent communication with the controllers in Pakistan.

The terrorist attacks were covered from different camera angles by camera teams from over 50 TV channels of the world. If the controllers in Pakistan had been able to see all their live transmissions, they would have had the minutest details of the police deployments. During the Black September kidnapping of some Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympics in 1972, the terrorists, who had taken up position with the hostages inside a house in the games village, were able to get details of the police deployments by watching the TV inside the house. At that time, there were hardly half a dozen channels and their technical equipment was not very good. If they were able to get so
many details by watching so few channels, it should not be surprising that the Pakistan-based controllers of the Mumbai attacks were able to get a lot more details in such precision.

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"There is no national security policy nor strategic planning in the country. The present government has failed in this regard," Gill said while delivering the keynote address at a seminar on 'Security of Northern Frontier and National Integration' at the Jammu University. Charging the UPA with caring little for the country's strategic interests either in South Asia or in the global context, he said, "I tell you, the country's security faces more danger from the politicians and their ideology than from Pakistan."

"What is the UPA doing to evolve a national security policy? Nothing. Be it the problems of Maoists, naxals, Punjab violence, Karantaka communal clashes or even terror attacks in various places ... they (UPA) have done nothing to rein them in," the former supercop said "

"I am finding (it) most ironical that Mrs Maneka Gandhi is reacting so strongly but she did not react at all strongly when the remarks of the observation made by her son known to everybody at that time and now forensically proved to be (that of) her son created the biggest upheaval and divided this society," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

Singhvi said, "Let me tell you that the UPA Government has always provided even-handed protection to every citizen and shall continue to do so."

God bless you for the Extremely even handed protection' was provided to Citizens of Mumbai on 26/11 which left us with hunderds of dead and a few more hunderds maimed .And many many thanks for the promise yhat "shall continue to do so."

Actually, Saraswati, it is important to establish whether or not there was a sleeper cell in Mumbai. There are equally good arguments for both sides. One in 'favour' is simple common sense; an attack of such magnitude would need some local assistance. But Raman has credibly argued against *one* scenario painted by the BBC, that the local spotters were *constantly* in touch with the foreign attackers, and guided them. Raman has concluded this is not how it transpired; he has not dismissed the idea of a local Lashkar cell helping to plan the massacre. The Mumbai terror attack was the 2nd worst terror incident in the world after the World Trade Centre, and THE worst in terms of sustained terror in a non-war environment. Of course, definitions of 'war' are different, but that is another issue.

"The terrorist attacks were covered from different camera angles by camera teams from over 50 TV channels of the world. If the controllers in Pakistan had been able to see all their live transmissions, they would have had the minutest details of the police deployments."

BBC journalist was just surmising . No definitive information. He made that clear. So Raman's stating the obvious in so many words makes no difference , neither the reader is any wiser.

What is notable is his conclusion that from TV footages Pakistani controllers could direct the operation at 26/11.

Govt. is coming back with an act to reserve to itself the right of deseminating information & visuals in terror or similar emergency situations, a position from which the govt. retracted last time around after representation by media to the Prime Minister.

We knew that without massive internal support 26/11 was not Logictically feaseable .Our Govt has been consistently and persistently hiding involvement of our own Indian brothers due to electoral considerations.

We don't listen to BBC and hence Raman's report is valuable information and confirmation for us of the intrnal sabotage our country is facing.

It does not surpise me that OUTLOOK whose policy is to consantanly denigrate Hindus has been allowing Raman to write here.Perhaps good business sense has prevailed upon Mehta not to offend Hindus who are the major buyers of the OutLook Magzine.